


Familial Love

by Calacious



Category: General Hospital
Genre: Adoption, Adult Adoption, Gen, Unrevealed Truths, birthday gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 08:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15385245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calacious/pseuds/Calacious
Summary: Jason adopts Spinelli, something he should have done years ago.





	Familial Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [suerum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/suerum/gifts).



> Written for Suerum's birthday week. Fic #2  
> I do not know everything about adult adoption law, but there is a petition period and whatnot. I have written this to suit my particular needs. It may take longer or be a much shorter process than how I've written it here.

The way that Spinelli's face lights up when Jason hands him the thick envelope makes Jason's stomach twist. He doesn't know why he's nervous about this. He's thought this through, has even talked it over with Sam and Carly, and knows that this is the right thing for him to do. 

 

"What's this for?" Spinelli asks, turning the envelope over in his hands, giving Jason a puzzled look.

 

Jason shrugs and scratches the back of his neck. "It's a birthday present," he says, settling against the back of the sofa.

 

"But my birthday's not for another two months," Spinelli says, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. 

"It's an early birthday gift," Jason says, silently pleading with Spinelli to stop looking at him as though he's never been given a gift before. It's a guarded, suspicious look and Jason doesn't like it one bit.

"Shouldn't I wait to open it on my birthday?" Spinelli asks, fingers touching the heavy paper of the envelope almost reverently. 

Jason shakes his head. "Open it now," he says, hoping that it doesn't sound like he's begging, or losing patience, with the younger man. 

"If you're sure," Spinelli says, slipping his index finger underneath the seal on the envelope and opening it carefully, as though fearful of tearing it. 

"I'm sure," Jason says, leaning forward, mimicking Spinelli's body language. He's more nervous than he has any right to be after all of the thought that he'd put into this. 

Spinelli's brow furrows as he pulls the official looking paper out of the envelope, straightening it, smoothing it out on his knees. He reads it in a glance, and then reads it again, much more slowly, mouthing the words. When he's read the paper through a third time, he turns toward Jason, eyes searching. 

"Is this real?" he asks, disbelief coloring his words.

Jason nods. "All that's missing is your signature," he says, hands folded on his knees.

Spinelli bites his lip and Jason holds his breath, worried that he's really messed things up, that he's crossed a line in their relationship that he shouldn't have crossed. 

"You...I...thank you," Spinelli stutters and Jason almost laughs because if anyone is never at a loss for words, it's Spinelli. 

"Is this real?" he asks again and pinches himself. 

Jason winces in sympathy and grabs Spinelli's hand before he can pinch himself again. "It is if you want it to be," he says. 

Spinelli nods, face splitting in a grin. He surges forward, wrapping his arms around Jason, adoption papers fluttering to the floor as he hugs the man who will, once he's signed the papers and it's cleared through the courts, be his adoptive father. 

"If you sign them today, we can get them into the adoption court and Diane says that the adoption should go through by your birthday in September, at least that's what she's pushing for. She could probably make it sooner if you want," Jason says, speaking into Spinelli's hair. 

Spinelli shakes his head and squeezes Jason tighter. "No, I, I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything, Damian," Jason says, placing a hand on his son's back and allowing the prolonged hug to continue. After all, he's missed years of them, years that he hadn't even known that he'd had a son in Spinelli. 

Diane had been very thorough in her research and had uncovered the truth about Spinelli's birth father, a truth that still rankles Jason, because, had he been told that he'd had a son, he would have been there for him, come hell or high water. He would have taken Spinelli in a heartbeat and raised him on his own, rather than leaving him with his grandmother. But, short of a time machine, Jason's not going to get those missing years back. 

Miriam has sent him Spinelli's childhood photo albums. It's not the same, though, seeing his son -- the boy he should have tickled into laughter, bounce on his knee, tuck in at night, read bedtime stories to, kiss the booboos of -- through the dull lens of a camera. 

_ "You don't have to go through with this adoption," Diane had said when she'd revealed the truth to him. "You can just tell your son the truth." _

_ "No," Jason had said, firm in his resolve. "He needs to know that he's wanted, that I see him as a son, not because of blood, but because of who he is." _

_ "You're a good man, Jason Morgan." _

_ Though she hadn't fully agreed with him, she'd respected his wishes and had promised not to divulge the truth to Spinelli.  _

He doesn't know if he is a good man, or a selfish one when Spinelli finally releases him from the hug, eyes lit up like it's Christmas (how many Christmases had he missed with his son?). He'd do anything to see that look on Spinelli's face and to keep it there. 

"You know what this means, old man?" Spinelli asks as he signs the papers with a flourish. His lips are quirked up into a teasing smile, and his eyes are sparkling with mirth. 

Jason shakes his head, suspicious and intrigued, wondering if Spinelli will demand a backlog of birthday and Christmas gifts, though he knows that his son (his son) would never do that. He'd give Spinelli the sun if he asked for it.

"You're a grandfather, now," Spinelli says, laughing when Jason groans. 

He's not old enough to be a grandfather. He'd practically been a kid when he'd fathered Spinelli all those years ago. 

"Watch it," Jason says, ruffling Spinelli's hair and jostling him. "I'm your father now, don't think I won't ground you."

"For what?" Spinelli asks. "Teasing an old man?"

"I guess the cake and orange soda I'd bought to help celebrate this occasion is going to have to go to waste," Jason says. "You, young man, are not getting any dessert tonight."

Spinelli's bottom lip juts out, eyes sparkling even as he pouts and gives Jason the saddest puppy dog look that Jason's ever seen. Jason signs and shakes his head. 

"Children nowadays, no respect for their elders."

Spinelli laughs, and Jason drags him into another hug. "Thank you for letting me be your father," he says. 

"Thanks for being the dad I never had," Spinelli whispers, hugging Jason back.

It doesn't make up for the decades that Jason lost being in the dark about being Spinelli's real father, but it does feel good to be able to call him his son now, and for Spinelli to know that it's not for any other reason than he wants to. That Spinelli is, and has always been, like a son to him, blood or not.  

"I love you," Jason says, kissing the top of Spinelli's head and reveling in how easy it is to be a father to the young man, something he should have done long ago, back when Spinelli had been just a dumb kid making poor decisions. Back when they'd first met before he'd learned the truth, before Spinelli had gone through any of the hell that he'd gone through in Jason's absence as his father. 

"I love you, too, dad," Spinelli says, holding his breath and releasing it when Jason hugs him tight.

"Let's go eat some cake," Jason says and Spinelli laughs, but lets Jason pull away from the hug on the pretense of celebrating with cake.

"This is the best pre-birthday gift that I've ever gotten," Spinelli says.

"It's the only pre-birthday gift that you've ever gotten," Jason corrects. 

The easy way in which they banter back and forth as they make their way into the kitchen to celebrate an event that should have happened years ago eases some of the nervousness that had been roiling in Jason's belly since Diane had told him the truth and handed him the papers. It's nothing new, this easy way in which they talk, but there's a different feel to it, one of freedom and acceptance and familial love. One that Jason will treasure for years to come. 

 


End file.
